So you think you’d like a celebrity athlete to speak in your church?
First, ask yourself several questions: Why do I want an athlete in my church? Because I’m a sports nut? Because I want to get the attention of some people I’ve not been able to reach? Because I want to draw a crowd? (Be honest on this one. There’s nothing inherently evil about numbers.) Because I’m getting pressure from key people in the church to do so? Because everybody’s doing it? Because I know an athlete who has something solid to offer as Christ’s representative?
Let’s deal with the best reason: you know of a celebrity athlete who can minister to your congregation. Now you can move without restraint on the “yes,” but with common sense as to the “how.”
Charlie Getty, former Penn Stater and a veteran offensive lineman with the Kansas City Chiefs, speaks “about fifty or sixty times” between January and June. Says Getty, “Be selective; know something about the athlete, either through correspondence or a phone call. One of my best friends is a pastor who would not have me in his church until we’d had lunch and he could check me out. That impressed me-.”
The next step is to determine exactly what you want the athlete to do. Speak at a father/son or mother/daughter banquet? (Don’t chuckle; women’s sports is the fastest growing phase of interscholastic and amateur sports in America.) Appear during evangelistic services? Be “showcased” for a brief testimony during a Sunday morning worship service and also speak to a combined youth Sunday school class? Deliver the sermon?
Most of this will be determined-should be determined-by the kind of person you get. If it’s an athlete deeper in the faith such as a Getty, utilize him to capacity. He says, “I like to speak. I feel I’m good at it; that it’s a gift from the Lord. My pastor has wisely counseled me. I don’t deliver sermons or the same pat testimony. I just try to share what the
Lord is most recently teaching me.”
If you get a young believer who is more comfortable spinning athletic tales and answering questions while putting in a limited plug for God, use him or her as it works best. You can’t get Barth from a new believer. Make sure the athlete and the church know exactly what is expected.
Burt Cooper, a Kansas City businessman and former Tampa Bay Buc, recalls a bad experience in Tampa, Florida. “A minister asked me to an early Sunday youth meeting. I arrived at the church at 8 a.m.-and left at 10 p.m. after being run all day long into every conceivable situation.”
The next necessity is to make contact. If you already have an established relationship with an athlete, you’re set. But let’s say, for our purposes, that you want a pro but have no idea how to get in touch.
First, understand that you probably cannot get a pro athlete “in season.” Though baseball fever may be gripping your church and the pennant races are headed into September (or the Super Bowl chase into December), you simply cannot get the athlete during the season, and this includes training camp. So, you’ll have the football player in the spring, the baseball player in the winter, the hockey pro in the summer, and so on.
Location is another factor. If you are in or close to a major metropolitan area with pro teams, your chances are multiplied. A rural location or small town presents problems. Most likely you’ll have to “settle” for the local college coach or a testimony from a small college or high school athlete. Settle? I’ve been in numerous banquets and other programs where the pro headliner was a faith flash in the pan, while the halting, stumbling high schooler who shared Christ in his or her nervous ways was the highlight of the evening.
Determine which player you want. You might ask other pastors whom they have invited, or check with the district or national denominational offices for athletes they would recommend. Contact the area Youth for Christ, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, or Young Life groups. You’ll probably do better going after a journeyman player rather than one of the top names who are in great demand by everyone. Unless you’ve an “in,” your chances are minimal.
Send a letter to the club, allowing plenty of leeway in it as to time frame and flexibility of dates. If you telephone, the club will request a letter or give you a brush off. Usually you cannot contact the athlete through the phone book (unlisted numbers) or the club (home numbers are not given out). So, write, although there are exceptions: “Call me any time,” smiled Getty. “When you’re an offensive lineman for the Chiefs, you don’t need an unlisted number. I’m in the book.”
Letters are forwarded by the club in the off-season. Make the letter short, specific, and void of “preacherism” (if the “Lord instructed” you to write this certain athlete, that probably will scare him away, not positively influence him). Get the honorarium figure up front; don’t give him this bit: “Oh, so you’re putting a price tag on your testimony.” No, the athlete does not need the money and may not even accept it. But it’s his assurance. He knows if the church is making a financial investment, it will simultaneously invest in the effort to make the occasion worthwhile. Many are like Getty. “I ask for expenses if it involves a trip. Otherwise, I don’t ask for anything, and I don’t turn anything down.”
The best contact may be to write the various sport/ faith ministries that work with pro athletes. These include the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (8701 Leeds Road, Kansas City, MO 64129), Pro Athlete’s Outreach (Box 15736, Phoenix, AZ 85060), Baseball Chapel, Inc. (4775 Cove Circle, No. 501, St. Petersburg, FL 33708), and Athletes in Action (Box 1576, San Bernardino, CA 92402). FCA will direct you to the local contact, and a visit with a staffer or volunteer will be enlightening. The other three ministries can give you a local contact or a player representative on nearby teams.
Publicity for the event should be tasteful. Ask for stock photos and bio material from the club’s PR department. This is one place the club will help you. Hyperbole and exaggeration abound in sports and in sport/faith matters, but you can announce the visit of a pro without equating it to Luke 2 or Acts 4. As you evidence a low-key but enthusiastic approach to the event, you’ll also model the appropriate attitude and expectancy for your congregation.
You can also help the athlete from being carried into deep waters and swamped by either his inarticulateness or the hero worship of your congregation. During question and answer sessions, keep the conversation in the athlete’s arena of expertise so he isn’t swept off on tangents. Americans have a bent for asking athletic heroes, movie stars, and others in this position, political, economic, and sociological questions to which the star may have small knowledge and few opinions. Too often an answer is faked; worse yet, it’s believed.
In following up the visit, send a letter of thanks. If there is opportunity for ministry, carry on. Get feedback from your church. What could have been done better? Did the kids go for it? The adults? What effect did it have on the church? How can such future happenings be best put together according to the make-up and needs of your congregation?
Through it all, realize that however you utilize a celebrity athlete, your goal is to exalt Christ. Allow the athlete a comfortable podium from which to share as much of Christ as he or she has to share at this particular stage of spiritual life. Through the effects of and exposure to this witness, build your congregation to Christian maturity.
-Gary Warner, executive secretary Evangelical Press Association
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